My Background: I graduated in 2008 and qualified as anOptometrist in 2009, I have been qualified 7 years. Since then I have worked asa resident for all large chain providers (Specsavers, vision express, opticalexpress, boots, Tesco). I have also locummed in over 20 practises. I did myresearch before choosing Optometry including work experience and reading up but after 7 years I have concluded: Optometry in the UK Is terrible career choice.Period. There are many reasons for this which I set out below:
#1 You will not be seen as a “eye specialist” Optometryis presented very misleadingly by UK universities: They present it as though willbe some kind of “eye specialist who treats eye conditions and checks vision”.Believe me, you will not. 90+% of Optometrists work in a RETAIL setting whereyou will be expected purely to sell glasses or contact lenses. The generalpublic do not even think about going to YOU as an optometrist for eyeproblems/disease. They go to their GP or Hospital A and E and to be fair whyshould they go to you as an Optometrist?? All YOU can do as an Optometrist iseither refer them To their GP or hospital so why shouldn’t they just go straightthere? You have no power to given them a prescription of any type of eyemedication apart from Chloramphenicol which they could easily just buy from aPharmacist without you****unless you study independent prescribing for 2 years postgraduate – which less the 5% of Optometrist do as it is a lot of hard work andresponsibility and will get NO extra pay for doing it compared to a normalOptometrist, so why would most people bother? – They don’t. These days evenpatients have caught on to the fact that you are just a “glasses salesmen/women”as they often call us.
#2 You will have extreme sales pressure As I said,90% of Optometry graduates will work in retail, and you will have incrediblystrong sales pressure thrust upon you by often unqualified managers who have no optical training themselves. Also it is worth adding that even qualifiedmanagers or Optometrist practice owners themselves encourage this terriblepractise. I have been qualified 7 years and it was basically the same everywhere I went, you will have targets like forexample you need to get 70-80% of patients to buy glasses per day. AnyOptometrist out there will tell you this is incredibly hard to do most of thetime. For example if you see an old pensioner who tells you they can’t affordglasses (which they often do) are you really going to FORCE them to buy glasses when they don’t need them/ or maybe already have glasses in good condition. This is what you WILL be expected to do. And if you do not you will be berated by sales managers. In some places it’s so bad the sales managers come and talk to the Optometrist after every patient they see to ask/berate why they didn’t “convert” the patient (get them to buy glasses). If you say to the sales manager things like “they didn’t need them” or “they couldn’t afford them” they berate you and tell you “YOU SHOULD OF DONE BETTER” In almost all practices having high sales figures is the ONLY way to get a pay rise, In every Interview I have had the first question you are asked is “what is your conversion rate for glasses sales” or “what your current sales targets are”
#3 You will not be not respected by other Optometrists orthe public: I can’t tell you the amount of times someone in thepublic/patient has asked me “Do you need a degree to do this job?” These days patients have caught on to the fact that you are mostly just a “glasses salesmen” as they often call us. The general public just do not recognise this isprofessional job which requires you to complete a tough and challenging degree. Furthermore the lack of unity if the profession is a joke, Optometrists do not respect each other in the slightest, I can’t tell you how many times I have heard one Optometrist bad mouth another in front of patients!!! You don’t really see Doctors bad mouthing each other in front of patients since they have that mutual respect but it does not exist in Optometry – no one cares.
4# You will have to work weekends and bank holidays Youwill be expected to work either Saturday or Sunday or sometimes both!. Thiswill likely cause havoc in your personal life as most people (whichprofessional jobs) work Monday to Friday, so forget about ever going out onFriday nights. You could say “so what doctors work weekends?” That’s right they do but their pay reflects that and is higher on weekends, whereas you as aresident Optometrist will not receive any higher pay for weekends, you willjust be expected to as that is the norm. Also Doctors/Police etc who work weekends are emergency services which we need - selling someone glasses is not an emergency service (see point #1)
5# You will not be wealthy or have a comfortable lifestyle:Pay in Optometry is terrible, it is now common for newly qualifiedOptometrist in/around London to start on 27k or lower, and there is no yearlyincrease like you get in other jobs. I know Optometrists who haven’t had a payincrease in 5 years or even longer and the only way to get pay increases inmost places is by having high sales figures, which apart from beingimmoral/unethical is extremely difficult to do. On average after 5 years qualifiedyou will be on about 40-43k which is of course higher than the UK average butyou will need to work very hard for it. This includes severe sales pressure(point #2) never having weekends off (point #3). On the other hand had I havefriends who didn’t even go University and work in fields like recruitment whoalready earn more than that. The reason = pay is so low is two things: 1. too many Optometry graduates for what was always a niche field. 2. Large multiples like Specsavers pushing down salaries
6# You will have repetitive job What you do will be EXACTLY the same from the day you qualify to the day you retire. I have put this point last as to be fair, having a repetitive job isn’t the worst thing loads of jobs are repetitive but it is INCREDIBLY BORING if you’re the kind of person to get bored quickly.
My experiences relates to retail Optometry where I have 7 years experiance (this is where 90% of optometrists will go), my friends who are loccuming also tell me the situation is getting worse locum rates going lower and lower (there is actually a recent petition about this – I have no experience of working hospital Optometry where tiny minority will go but from what I understand pay is often lower then retail optometry. Also most hospital posts are part time so you would need to string together a hospital job and maybe a part time retail one to make a decent living.
CONCLUSION: THINK VERY VERY CAREFULLY BEFORE CHOOSIING TOSTUDY/BECOME AN OPTOMETRIST THERE ARE A LOT OF CONS/DISADVANTAGES. MOST QUALIFIED OPTOMETRISTS I HAVE MET BADLY REGRET THEIR CHOICE BUT ARE TRAPPED (LIKE I AM)